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- There is a disconnect between children's learning experience in the classroom and outside of school.Buckingham, D. (2003). Media Education & the end of the Critical Consumer. Harvard Educational Review Buckingham.In many ways the world has changed and school has not.I'm generalising here, and being a bit unfair to schools, but I'm trying to make a point about the differences between these two sites of learning.Technology has enabled not only the consumption of content, but also the creation and sharing of it. Digital media empowerment underpins the emerging “participatory culture” (Jenkins, H. 2006. Convergence Culture, where old and new media collide. New York University Press)As soon as learners step out of the door, they are preyed upon as potential consumers in the attention economy. Nike, McDonalds, MTV, etc. are vying for their attention. I'm not saying whether this is right or wrong, I'm just pointing out the reality.Now, it may be true that many of today's kids are over-stimulated and obsessed with technology. But as educators, we need to begin to understand the digital life of learners, the changes that are happening in their world in order to respond appropriately.Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/coda/161946841/sizes/l/, CC Their Space: Education for a digital generation (Demos.co.uk, 2007). http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/theirspace This being a schools ICT conference, I want you to consider one tool to support formal education and informal learning in an attempt to lessen the classroom vs the world disconnect ... the cellphone.Image courtesy of Kiwanja.net http://kiwanja.net/mobilegallery.htm The first step is to acknowledge that cellphones play a part in valuable informal learning.These are the affordances we need to remember when we consider how the cellphone can be used as a learning tool.Eric Klopfer being interviewed by Henry Jenkins (2008): http://henryjenkins.org/2008/07/an_interview_with_eric_kl... South AfricAnS, BroAdcASt MediA, And hiV/AidS AwAreneSS:Results of a NatioNal suRvey by the Kaiser Family Foundation & SABC (MaRch 2007)Let's now consider 4 projects – 2 existing and 2 proposed – where the affordances of cellphones are exploited for learning purposes.Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/whiteafrican/2735722117/size... (CC)Math on MXit: Using MXit as a Medium for Mathematics EducationLaurie BUTGEREITPresented at Meraka INNOVATE Conference for Educators, CSIR, Pretoria, 18-20 April 2007http://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspa ce/handle/10204/1614 Some project stats:* Nokia 6300 phones used (entry level phone)* 43 mini videos (2-3 mins long) loaded onto phones (taken from existing Mindset digital content). Interesting finding: the girls wanted more videos. After watching 3 minute video they asked: “Where is more?” This counters the original assumption that only short mobile movies will retain user attention.* 3 “mobisode” (mobile episode) animations.* 2 games:o An overt maths problem solving gameo An implicit business development simulation game* All curriculum aligned* Grade 10 girls: 20 got phones, 20 in control group who didn’t get phones* 6 month projectInitial results of the project:* Exceptionally high usage of the games and video clips by the learners.* Problem solving is collaborative. When stuck with a problem, the kids asked each other and their siblings.* “Teacher in my pocket”.Full, in-depth results of the project will be available in November 2008.Refs: M4Girls and Innovating Educationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al ternate_reality_gamePuppetmaster, rabbit hole“Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goalJudgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sourcesTransmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities” Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A. J., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. . Retrieved October 31, 2007, from http://www.digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E... Points 2-4 are contestable and more research is needed to better understand them.For an interesting viewpoint on TXTSPK, read 2b or not 2b? by David Crystal: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jul/05/saturdayrevie... He reminds us that using non-standard language is nothing new, e.g. wot and cos were introduced into the Oxford English Dictionary in 1829.TXTSPK forces people to write economically, inventively and playfully.They were initially condemned.Spurred severe societal backlash.Later became commonplace.Cellphones will follow the same path. They are not going to go away.Teachers are at once one of the single greatest change agents for more creative uses of ICTs in education, and also the potential obstacle to this.
The cellphone: ultimate distraction or powerful learning tool?
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Desc: Keynote presentation at the Schools ICT Conference in Cape Town, 1-3 October 2008
Slideshow Transcript
- Slide 1: The cellphone: ultimate distraction or powerful learning tool? Steve Vosloo 0 1.1 0 .08
- Slide 2: The growing disconnect Cellphones: pros and cons Challenge
- Slide 3: “There is now an extraordinary contrast between the high levels of activity that characterise children's consumer cultures and the passivity that increasingly suffuses their schooling.” (Buckingham, 2003)
- Slide 4: Classroom vs the world Formal & structured Informal & fluid Top-down Bottom-up Passive Active Disengaged Engaged Un-networked & disconnected Networked & plugged-in CAMI & Powerpoint MXit/Facebook, games, web MCQs & simple creations Communication, play & exploration 30 mins/week Up to 2 hours/day
- Slide 5: Classroom vs the world
- Slide 6: “ICT in schools is predicated on the ‘top-down’ understanding that we know how children should be learning from technology rather than seeking to learn from their existing practices.” (Their Space, 2007)
- Slide 8: Cellphone affordances Pervasive Low-cost Content delivery and creation medium Klopfer (Jenkins 2008): Portability - can take it to different sites and move around within a location Social interactivity - can exchange data and collaborate with other people face- to-face Connectivity - a common network that creates a true shared environment
- Slide 9: Cellular South Africa Cellphones: 72% own a cell phone Nearly half SMS almost daily MXit: 8 million subscribers 250m messages/day Computers and Internet: Only 17% ever used the Internet 6% use it (almost) daily 9% have Internet access at home (Kaiser Family Foundation & SABC, 2007)
- Slide 10: Dr Math Dr Math is a maths tutoring service to school learners that uses MXit 2-8pm, Sunday-Thursday, with some 20 tutors. 3,200 learners have used service (from grade 3 up) Tutoring mostly done in English, but some Afrikaans cases are occurring Learners contact Dr Math from their homes, while on buses, taxis and on the sports field. Even from the bath! LATEST: Text-adventure game (interactive fiction)
- Slide 11: dr.math: What grade are you in? what are you covering in math? Spark plug: 7 dr.math: grade 7? Spark plug: yes dr.math: are u doing \"pre algebra\" stuff like What is the value of X if x + 3 = 10? Spark plug: yes dr.math: ok, so what is the value of x if x + 3 = 10? Spark plug: 7 dr.math: ok. how about (15 x 2 ) + x = 35 Spark plug: 5 dr.math: (I am going to use * for multiply so not to confuse it with x, ok?) Spark plug: ok dr.math: (2 * x) + 8 = 18 Spark plug: 5 dr.math: very good. can you explain to me how you figured that out? Spark plug: 18 - 8 is 10 so 2* what is 10 and the answer is 5 dr.math: Excellent.
- Slide 12: M4Girls Project Improve maths in grade 10 rural girls (by Mindset) 43 mini videos, 3 “mobisode” animations, 2 games
- Slide 13: Alternate Reality Game ARG: an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions. (Wikipedia) Think “Finders Keepers” but played collectively using web, email, SMS, voice, video, etc. Collaborative problem-solving Skills: collective intelligence, judgement, transmedia navigation (Jenkins et al, 2006)
- Slide 14: Reading/writing cellphone Using the cellphone as a “book” delivery and authoring tool Serialised m-novels: e.g. 28 chapters, 900 characters (Novel Idea) Othello as an m-novel? Communities engaging literacy practices of writing and reviewing
- Slide 15: But ... 1) Distraction 2) Antisocial? 3) Risk of violence/abuse 4) Effect on reading and writing? 5) Cost
- Slide 16: What do these things have in common? Printing press Film Comics Rock 'n roll
- Slide 17: Challenge Consider ways to exploit cellphone affordances to support teaching and learning, while limiting the distraction and risk factors Only YOU can do this ...
- Slide 18: Thank yo u Email steve.vosloo@shuttleworthfoundation.org Blog innovatingeducation.wordpress.com Games and learning group groups.google.com/group/galsa Slides www.slideshare.net/stevevosloo www.s h uttle worth founda tion.org
